Speed Demons

Most of us who are car enthusiasts have a passion for speed.

By
Thos L. Bryant, Editor-in-Chief

Aug 17, 2007

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This month's cover story, "," is all about high-speed performance. Specials Editor Andy Bornhop managed to round up a solid half-dozen serious enthusiasts who were willing to bring cars to central California for an exciting event. We are very grateful to the United States Navy for making us welcome at Naval Air Station Lemoore, which has wonderful facilities for high-speed testing. Having grown up in a Navy family, I was delighted that this branch of our nation's armed forces rolled out the welcome mat once again so we could run some incredible machines on their 15,500-foot runway.

Most of us who are car enthusiasts have a passion for speed. Not the racing on the street sort of thing, as I hope we are all mature enough to realize the dangers of that silliness. But the pleasure of driving a car with solid performance capability, one that will run like the wind when you find an open road with no traffic. Or a car that you can take to your local club events for autocrossing or road racing. Or perhaps your thing is participating in the Wednesday night grudge-match drag racing that takes place on lots of tracks across America.

Around the Road & Track offices, many of us have found ways to indulge our "need for speed," and we do have ample opportunities to be involved in track tests of many of the cars we report on. In addition, several of the younger editors (Shaun Bailey, Jonathan Elfalan, Calvin Kim, along with photographers Chris Cantle and Marc Urbano) are still jazzed about winning the 24 Hours of LeMons last year. Several people here love the thrills of driving and racing go karts, while others (Andy Bornhop, Doug Kott, Joe Rusz and Peter Egan come to mind) have spent their time (and money!) involved in sports-car racing at one level or another. Vintage competition events have lured Dennis Simanaitis and me into driver's seats more than once, while Mike Monticello is our remarkable triathlon competitor who has also run up hundreds of miles in mountain bike racing. And Marla Santos in our Art Department is very competitive in PWC racing (personal watercraft) through the American Power Boat Association and was the national champion of Guam a few years ago.

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When it comes to the super-high-speed events for which R&T is justly famed, we prefer to leave the driving to professionals who have the experience of such speeds and the ability to deal with any problems that might crop up. Over the years we have done World's Fastest Cars tests with Phil Hill, Paul Frère, Sam Posey, Wayne Taylor and Mario Andretti. In recent times, all-around racing champion Steve Millen has contributed his skills to our tests, as he did for this month's cover story. Millen has raced just about everything you can imagine, from formula cars to rally cars to stadium trucks to IMSA GT, and been successful in all. And he has a fine ability to describe the various ways cars react when pressed to their limits.

I'm sure you will find Andy Bornhop's cover story an exciting and entertaining description of high-speed thrills.

Mazda's Gift

In celebration of our 60th anniversary, the thoughtful people at Mazda North American Operations presented us with a pedal-car . It was first revealed to us at the Road & Track New York Auto Show dinner at 21 Club, by Jim O'Sullivan, President of Mazda N.A.

A bit later, the beautiful red Miata arrived in our lobby, artfully mounted on a stand, and took up its place of honor next to the legendary R&T Cyclops car.

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